MATLAB 7.7

Latest Features

Version 7.7

Released: 09 Oct 2008
 

Version 7.7, part of Release 2008b, includes the following enhancements:

Development Environment

 Watch a video (5 min, 25 sec)

• Function browser that enables finding appropriate functions while typing in the Editor and Command Window
• Function hints that provide reminders of arguments while typing
• Updated Current Directory browser, providing enhanced navigation, filtering, and file previews

Language and Programming

 Watch a video (7 min, 28 sec)

• New containers.Map data structure, enabling implementation of look-up tables and similar constructs, such as a fast string-to-value index
• Enhanced doc command, providing automatic display of formatted documentation for user-written classdef files

Mathematics

 Watch a video (7 min, 50 sec)

• Enhanced random-number generation, including new algorithms and the ability to create multiple independent streams
• Enhanced mathematical libraries to use Intel® MKL v10.0.3

File I/O and External Interfacing

• Support for new file formats, including NetCDF (reading and writing) and JPEG2000 (reading)

See the Release Notes for details.

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Version 7.6

Released: 01 Mar 2008
 

Version 7.6, part of R2008a, offers a broad range of improvements in the following areas, including a major update to object-oriented programming capabilities.

Language and Programming

 Watch a video - Object Oriented Programming (11 min, 11 sec)
 Watch a video - Other Language and Programming (4 min, 56 sec)

• Major enhancements to object-oriented programming capabilities allowing easier development and maintenance of large applications and data structures. Many new features, including:
  • New classdef keyword enabling you to define properties, methods, and events in a class definition file
  • New handle class with reference behavior, aiding the creation of data structures such as linked lists
  • Events and listeners allowing the monitoring of object property changes and actions
  • JIT/Accelerator support providing significantly improved object performance over previous releases
  • Several enhancements to the development environment to support developing and using classes including improved support for objects in the variable editor and M-lint warnings specific to classes
• Ability to manage namespace by placing classes and functions in packages
• New clearvars function for clearing or keeping specified variables
• New onCleanup function to specify any cleanup tasks that need to be performed by MATLAB when a function completes

Development Environment

 Watch a video (6 min, 56 sec)

• Ability to customize and rearrange the MATLAB Desktop and Editor toolbars
• Expanded code-folding support in the Editor, providing the ability to collapse cells and language constructs (including for, if, switch, and more)
• Enhanced inspection of structures and objects with the Variable Editor, previously known as the Array Editor
• File comparison tool expanded to allow comparison of directories, MAT-files and binary files
• Several enhancements to automatic M-file publishing, including support for functions and the ability to define configurations on a per-file basis
• M-Lint code checker support for Embedded MATLAB™ features

Mathematics

• Ability to insert custom FFTW and LAPACK libraries
• New algorithms for ldl, logm, and funm based on recent numerical methods Research

Graphics and GUI Building

 Watch a video (9 min, 32 sec)

• Ability to link plots to workspace variables, synchronizing displays of changing data
• Support for "brushing" (interactively selecting) data in plots for analysis and manipulation
• Brushed variables in one plot also will highlight in other plots linked to the same workspace data
• New control uitable, accessible from GUIDE, enabling the display and editing of tabular information in graphical user interfaces

File I/O and External Interfacing

• MEX support for Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2008, OpenWATCOM 1.7, and Intel® FORTRAN 10.1 software
• mmreader multimedia reader expanded to support QuickTime video on the Apple® Macintosh® platform (previously released on Microsoft® Windows® platforms)

Performance and Large Data Set Handling

• New memory function providing memory information such as largest block available, providing diagnostics of memory problems on Windows platforms
• JIT/Accelerator support enhanced to statements executed at the MATLAB command line and in cell mode in the editor, providing improved performance in these environments
• Automatic multithreaded computation providing improved performance of supported functions on computers with multiple processors
• Significant speed improvement in multiplication of sparse matrices

Version 7.5

Released: 01 Sep 2007
 

Version 7.5, part of Release 2007b, includes the following enhancements:

Performance and Large Data Set Handling

 Watch a video (4 min, 57 sec)

• MATLAB arrays no longer limited to 2³¹ (~2 x10⁹) elements, allowing many numeric and low-level file I/O functions to support real double arrays greater than 16 GB on 64-bit platforms
• New function maxNumCompThreads enabling use of get and set for the maximum number of computational threads
• Upgraded Linear Algebra Package library (LAPACK 3.1) on all platforms, plus upgraded optimized Basic Linear Algebra Subprogram libraries (BLAS) on AMD processors (AMCL 3.6)

Development Environment

 Watch a video (3 min, 39 sec)

• Code folding in the Editor, allowing easier viewing and navigation of large MATLAB files with many functions
• Ability to run functions directly from the Editor by configuring a set of arguments for an M-file
• Quick access to function help from the command line or in the Editor

Language and Programming

 Watch a video (2 min, 9 sec)

• New MException class and new try-catch syntax, allowing more robust catching and handling of errors

Mathematics

 Watch a video (1 min, 6 sec)

• Sparse matrix support added to the ldl function and backslash operator (\), allowing factorization and solving of real symmetric sparse matrices
• New quadgk function, allowing numerical integration using Gauss-Kronrod quadrature and supporting integration over infinite limits
• New bvp5c function for solving boundary value problems for ordinary differential equations, more efficient for small error tolerances

File I/O and External Interfacing

 Watch a video (3 min, 02 sec)

• New mmreader multimedia reader object on Windows platforms supporting formats such as AVI, MPEG, and WMV, and additional codecs

Graphics and GUI Building

 Watch a video (2 min, 47 sec)

• Toolbar editor in GUIDE to interactively design toolbars for graphical user interfaces

Embedded MATLAB™

• Note Generating compiled MEX-files from Embedded MATLAB™ functions requires Simulink® or Fixed-Point Toolbox. Generating C code requires Simulink and Real-Time Workshop®, and generating HDL code requires Simulink and Simulink® HDL Coder. Embedded MATLAB is also supported by Stateflow® and SimEvents™.
• Support for algorithms that span multiple M-files, improving algorithm reuse and maintenance
• Support for calling external C functions
• Data type override, facilitating fixed-point design and enabling a single source for fixed- and floating-point code generation
• Expanded Embedded MATLAB runtime library with 13 new functions, including fixed-point bitwise operators such as bitsliceget, bitconcat, and bitandreduce

See the Release Notes for details.

Version 7.4

Released: 01 Mar 2007
 

Version 7.4, part of Release 2007a, includes the following enhancements:

Development Environment

• Enhanced delimiter matching in the Editor includes language constructs such as for, if, and switch
• Ability to automatically fix a subset of M-Lint warning messages in the Editor
• Desktop tool management enhancements on Windows and Linux platforms, including the ability to maximize and hide tools
• Support for undo and redo in the Array Editor for instant correction of interactive operations
• Ability to publish M-code functions when not evaluating code
• Ability to open MATLAB files from the Windows Explorer into an already running MATLAB
• Help browser search results now include demos

Language and Programming

• New inputParser class, making it easier to parse and validate M-file function input arguments
• New assert function that throws an error if a condition is not true, enabling built-in testing of code
• New verLessThan function that checks the version of MATLAB, making it easier to write code that runs across multiple releases
• Numbered arguments to formatted string functions (e.g., sprintf), avoiding the need for parameter reordering in applications such as translation

Mathematics

• New bsxfun function, enabling simpler coding and improved performance for binary operations requiring singleton expansion
• New ilu function for performing incomplete LU factorization to be used as a preconditioner for sparse iterative methods

File I/O and External Interfacing

• New CollectOutput option for the textscan function to automatically collect values of the same data type into a single array
• Ability to programmatically connect to an instance of a COM Automation server, to create an Automation server using a custom interface, and to take full advantage of event interfaces

Performance and Large Data Set Handling

• Multithreaded computation support for many linear algebra and element-wise numeric operations, allowing performance improvement on multicore and multiprocessor systems
• Upgraded versions of optimized Basic Linear Algebra Subprogram (BLAS) libraries on all platforms
• Improved performance of the Windows XP 64-bit platform
• 64-bit MATLAB support for Solaris, allowing the handling of much larger data sets

See the Release Notes for details.

Version 7.3

Released: 01 Sep 2006
 

Version 7.3, part of Release 2006b, includes the following enhancements:

Development Environment

• M-Lint code checker improvements, including ability to disable classes of warnings, support in Simulink Embedded MATLAB Editor, support for MATLAB Compiler messages, and display of messages in Japanese
• New file comparison tool for easier assessment of differences between any two M-files
• Enhancements to debugging functions, including an option to save breakpoints that can be restored in a future session
• Improved inspection of workspace variables with new statistical columns in the Workspace Browser and the ability to view time series objects in the Array Editor
• M-code generation from Import Wizard, for programmatic access to interactively imported files
• New look and feel on Linux and Solaris platforms
• Help browser support for exact-phrase and wildcard searches

Mathematics

• New ldl function for full factorization and solving for Hermitian matrices
• New permutation vector option for lu, luinc, and ldl functions
• Upper and lower triangular factor options for chol and ldl for improved performance and memory efficiency

Graphics

• Interactive page layout and print preview allowing customization of plots and page position before printing
• Support for mouse scroll wheel in figure Zoom Tool

File I/O

• New functions giving access to more than 200 routines in the HDF5 C API library, supporting reading and writing of complex data types, HDF5 data subsetting capabilities, and other HDF5 features.

Large Data Set Handling and Performance

• Elimination of temporary memory copies when calling M-file functions and some built-in functions in-place (i.e., x = myfunction(x)) for easier handling of large data sets and improve performance
• Ability to read and write MAT-files greater than 2 GB on 64-bit platforms via new switches to the save function
• Ability to view larger arrays in Array Editor
• Full JIT/Accelerator support for 64-bit platforms, allowing faster code execution

See the Release Notes for details.